I ran across a neat old Mauser today, it is a bench rest gun with a 250-3000 caliber Ashurst barrel fitted. The action is a Mauser commercial action with the Mauser banner on the front ring, and marked Obendorf on the side, no thumb slot. Unfortunately the rear bridge has been drilled and tapped for scope bases.

The gun is a single shot, with a very narrow trigger gaurd and bottom metal. Were Mausers offered from the factory with such bottom metal? I'm interested in the gun primarily for the action as the Mauser crest is strong and except for the drilled rear bridge the action is spotless.

Sounds like the perfect action for claw mounts: put the rear base over the D&T rear bridge and the front base out on the barrel. Extra money for sure, but sounds like a worthy action!

Had I more time, I'd thumb through the Speed book.

flaco

Well....MAYBE.

If you look through printed materials on the history of modern benchrest shooting, you will find that in the late '40s, and all through the '50s, single shot commercial Mauser actions had a following as "THE" action for benchrest shooting (in some shooters' eyes). They were still offered as late as around the start of the '60s, although I believe by that point they were all FN actions, not German ones.

A few of those publications had pictures of the actions used, but I can't recall offhand if it was early Gun Digests, Shooter's Bibles, or some of the other annuals which were showing them.

Anyway, the only way to know for sure if your bottom metal matches that sold with the factory actions is to find some pics of those Mauser benchrest actions, and compare your rifle to those pics.

Good luck.

The only ones I used were the FN benchrest action in the 1960's. I never did see the Oberdorf's come thru our shop.